5.9 million US citizens presently in jail or on parole

http://www.cnn.com/US/9908/22/BC-CRIME-USA-OFFENDERS.reut/
Number of US offenders reaches
record 5.9 million
August 22, 1999
Web posted at: 4:54 PM EDT (2054 GMT)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The number of U.S. adults behind bars or under
police supervision last year reached a record 5.9 million offenders,
almost 3 percent of the adult population, the Justice Department
reported Sunday.
The figure, in a report issued by the department's Bureau of
Justice Statistics, means that about <bold>one out of every 34
adults</bold> were in the nation's prisons and jails, or on probation
or parole for various criminal acts.
Probationers are criminals sentenced to a period of correctional
supervision in the community, while people on parole undergo a period
of conditional supervision after having served part of a prison term.
The latest figure includes a record 4.1 million people who are
under supervision and a record 1.82 million people who were
incarcerated at the end of 1998.
This correctional population represents an increase of 163,800
people from the previous year.
"It's been a steady increase since 1990," Thomas Bonczar, a
co-author of the bureau's report.
Twenty-one percent of adults on probation were female, up from 18
percent in 1990, while 64 percent where white, down from 68 percent in
1990, according to the report. It said 35 percent were black, up from
34 percent in 1990 and one percent either American Indian, Alaska
Native or Asian American.
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NOTE that the Department of Justice figures that Hispanics are white.
===
http://www.cnn.com/US/9907/19/violent.crime.ap/
U.S. violent crime lowest in 25 years
July 19, 1999
Web posted at: 5:58 a.m. EDT (0958 GMT)
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Violent crime fell 7
percent last year from 1997, with 8.1 million
Americans falling victim, the lowest number
reported since the Justice Department began
tracking the figure in 1973.
[...]
"It's because of more police officers on the
streets, tougher sentences, more prosecutions,
better prevention programs, a healthy economy
and a new approach to crime fighting that
involves a closer working relationship between
communities and federal, state and local law
enforcement," Reno said.
[...]
Sunday's report said that from 1993 to 1998, rates of violent crime --
rape or sexual assault,
robbery, aggravated assault and simple assault -- fell 27 percent,
from 50 per 1,000 Americans age 12 or older to<bold> 37 per 1,000.
</bold>[...]
"Every major type of crime measured, rape or sexual assault, robbery,
aggravated assault, simple assault, burglary, theft and motor vehicle
theft decreased significantly between 1993 and 1998," the study said.
The annual survey of American households <bold>excludes
killings</bold>, because it asks individuals about their own
experiences.
[etc.]
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